Outdoors
More Stories
‘Good Ol’ Days’ of Indiana wildlife weren’t so good
By Jack Spaulding For those of us today and for the earliest Hoosier 200 years ago, it’s hard to imagine an Indiana without deer. But the once expansive herds of whitetail deer of Indiana’s earliest pioneer days were killed out by habitat loss and unregulated hunting by the time my grandfather came along. Records show… Continue reading.
Sustenance afield
BY JACK SPAULDING As long as mankind has hunted, fished and foraged, someone has always brought along something fairly edible to help stave off hunger and starvation. In ancient times, folks went afield with jerky, pemmican and leather bags of parched corn. Sucking on a mouthful of over-cooked, blackened corn has pretty much fallen out… Continue reading.
Turkey Buzzard’s Vicious Cousin
By Jack Spaulding When traveling through Shelby County recently, I came across two large birds dining on roadkill just off of a county road. At first, I thought they were common turkey buzzards. But as I got closer, I realized they weren’t and quickly identified them. They were black and appeared to have less of… Continue reading.
Trapper Jack
Note to readers: Jack Spaulding has just released his second full-length book. In “Coon Hunter and the Kid,” Jack shares tales of a rural Midwestern boy’s journey to manhood and the lifelong bonds and lessons learned on the hunting trail. For this month’s column, we present an excerpt. As a young boy, I considered myself… Continue reading.
‘The Bears of Blue River’ … revisited?
By Jack Spaulding For more than a century, the tales of frontier teenager Balser Brent and his adventures with bears, guns and Native American treasure along Indiana’s Blue River in the 1800s left generations of young Hoosiers spellbound. But the sad reality for those hoping to track and trap a bear: Black bears had vanished… Continue reading.
Home Restoration
By Jack Spaulding A slightly forlorn tone tinged my wife’s voice when she said, “There is something in the garage I want to show you.” As I walked into the garage, I saw, lying on one of my work tables, a wide light maple branch holding a small woven bird’s nest containing three tiny ivory… Continue reading.
Quoth the cardinal
By Jack Spaulding Once, on a late afternoon, I was sitting in my upstairs office writing my latest column of outdoors lore when suddenly, I was surprised to hear a tap, as if someone had gently rapped, upon my second story back door. Since even our family and close friends use the front door, the… Continue reading.
Wren invasion
By Jack Spaulding One Sunday morning before Christmas, as my wife and I were sitting down to lunch, my sister Mary Jo called from her home in Ingalls, Indiana. “You’ll never guess who dropped in to see me this morning,” she began. “I was still in bed when I heard something flutter by my head…. Continue reading.
Unusual ‘Roosters’
By Jack Spaulding My good friend Tom Stiers phoned the other day seeking my advice. Growing up together in the small town of Moscow, we have shared many an outdoor adventure over the years. So, I was amused but not surprised by his latest close encounter. Tom started out, “It seems I have an unusual… Continue reading.
If the water’s brown, turn around!
BY JACK SPAULDING Summertime brings kayakers and canoeists out to run the rivers and streams here in Indiana. Nothing is more fun than a leisurely trip down a river or stream, floating past the banks covered in wildflowers while bathing in the luxury and warmth of Mother Nature. Among the beauty and tranquility, danger can… Continue reading.
Clusters of Critters or Hordes of Herds
BY JACK SPAULDING While gathering information about eagle watch programs across the state, I came across something noting that a group of eagles was not technically called a “flock.” Doing what is totally unexpected of an outdoors writer, I researched the proper terms for collective groups of animals. Sure enough: A group of eagles is… Continue reading.
Outoor mythbusters
By Jack Spaulding In the course of over 30 years writing about the outdoors, I have had access to a lot of “confidential” facts given me on the QT from the conspiracy theory crowd. There are always eyewitnesses or a staunch, believable individual, who is the source of the confidential information. It usually goes, “I… Continue reading.